Flyers testing +ve, but no watch on their movement

Nagpur: Though Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) continues to screen flyers arriving from six Covid hotspot cities, the civic body’s policy of allowing those testing positive to remain in self-isolation may prove disastrous, say experts, citing cases of Delta-plus variant being found in different Indian cities.
Flyers testing Covid positive should be kept in government set-up or even hospitalized, if need be, say experts.
Air travellers from Ahmedabad, Goa, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Delhi who arrive without mandatory negative RT-PCR report are asked to take Covid test at the airport itself. At least 26 such flyers have tested positive in city so far since May, reveals data disclosed by the NMC.
These flyers were asked to go into self-isolation, but the NMC has not ensured they stay in quarantine till their infection period is over.
Municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B said, “We will remain vigilant. Passengers are not just from Nagpur but other places in the region. We keep tracking them with new variants coming to fore. We are following the government norms.”
Doctors in the city said as the number of positive flyers is low, they can be quarantined at government set-up and genome sequencing must be done on their RT-PCR samples.
Senior pulmonologist Dr Ashok Arbat said we need to know the strain such patients are carrying. “Delta-plus variant, if it comes, will be deadly. Now, it is very important to know the enemy and how damaging it can be. We were caught unawares in the second wave because we didn’t know which variant we were fighting with and how virulent it was. Unless such studies are done, we won’t be able to effectively tackle the next wave,” he said.
Dr Arbat added that passengers at all entry points — road, rail and air — should be properly screened.
A doctor, whose lab is among those testing flyers at Nagpur airport, said the city may again face the same problems like two months ago. “We didn’t know what was happening in Amravati. Later, the virus load shifted to Nagpur and gradually the Delta variant has surfaced with another mutation. We are not aware of the international travel history of flyers coming to Nagpur. They are likely to bring new strain to the city,” the doctor said.
Critical care specialist Dr Imran Noor Mohammad said 90% people don’t follow quarantine norms. “Unless they are quarantined at a government facility, containment measure won’t work. Those having international travel trail must be restricted at the entry point itself for 14 days. Samples of those flyers testing positive must be studied for genome sequencing,” he said.
Consultant pulmonologist Dr Vikram Rathi said flyers should be placed in quarantine and all their close contacts be traced and tested. “If required, they should be hospitalized,” he said.
Info
Hotspot cities
Ahemdabad, Goa, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Delhi
May 1 to June 22/6/21
Total flights |146
Total passangers | 12194
Total passangers tested | 1109
Positive passangers from Ngp| 26
NMC data
Date ---------------- tested ------------ positive –------ total flyers
June 13 ----------------59----------------3 --------------565
June 14 ----------------48----------------2--------------393
June 18 ----------------71---------------3--------------465
June 19 ----------------59----------------1--------------555
(Days when passengers tested positive)